I just came across a passage in the Dramatica book that suddenly has me confused (I've read it several times, so am not sure why it took this long for me to get confused by it).

In the section "Storyforming Structural Story Points" you discuss how the main and impact characters function in the OS throughline:

In the Overall Story all we see are the characteristics they represent in relation to the other Overall Story characters.

So if your Main Character happens to be the Protagonist as well, then it is purely as the Protagonist that we will see him in the Overall Story. If your Impact Character is also an Archetypal Guardian, then his helping and conscience are all you should consider about that character in the Overall Story.

And a bit later:

The importance of the Main Character and Impact Character to the Overall Story is completely in terms of the Overall Story characteristics assigned to them.

That is the only reference in the book to "Overall Story characteristics," by which you seems to mean "motivation" (the Guardian's help and conscience in the example above).

Why only motivation? I can well imagine that a character's methodology might well be an issue in the OS throughline.

By characteristics, we mean any characteristics you might assign to an objective character (in the Overall Story throughline) in the Build Characters windows. This includes the motivations, methodologies, purposes, and standards of evaluation.

Another way to say the same thing is this:

Character functions are best understood in context. If the context is the Overall Story throughline, then the objective character functions (i.e. characteristics/character element assignments) are the appropriate aspects to understand and use those characters (players). If the context is the MC or IC throughline, then the subjective characters perspectives are the appropriate contexts in which to understand and illustrate those unique perspectives.

The characteristics in the Overall Story thoughline are objective. The characteristics in the MC or IC throughlines are subjective. Each domain/throughline share the same element NAMES, but are different because they are in different throughlines and domains/classes.

For example, if the OS is Situation, the all 64 elements in the Situation Class/Domain are objective characteristics, INCLUDING their arrangement. If the MC is in the Manipulation domain, then the Manipulation (Psychology) elements are MC elements and therefore subjective -- they only pertain to the MC's personal issues.

Another way to look at it is what's good for me (MC context) isn't the same this as what is good for everybody objectively (OS context).